Buying New Fish

How Frequently Should New Fish Be Introduced to Your New Fish Tank?

(The First Tank Guide)

Once you get your fish tank started, you
are undoubtedly anxious to get fish for the aquarium. After all, having an empty aquarium
sitting in your room isn't particularly interesting or engaging. And
this can be even more frustrating if you have a lot of money invested
in the fish tank and aquarium equipment, or if
there is something about the fish tank that is, shall we say, "less
than ideal," like noise from a pump or space taken up in your home.

Your First Fish

There's some good news!

You can get your first fish to start the cycling process very soon after getting your
fish tank set up. You only really need to
wait for the temperature in the aquarium to be stable - and in the
right range - and to be sure that all the equipment is operating
correctly and that nothing leaks. This can sometimes be accomplished
in a few hours, but you may want to wait a couple of days, or at least
overnight.

When to Get More Fish

You do not want to add any additional fish to your fish tank until
the aquarium has completely cycled - a process
that generally takes 6-8 weeks.

This means that you need to wait at least six
weeks after introducing your first fish before you consider
introducing any additional fish to your fish tank.

The only exception to this would be if you unfortunately lose
all the fish you introduced to your fish tank as your
first fish.

How Many New Fish to Get

When you are getting new fish for your fish tank, there are a few
guidelines that will help prevent problems with the fish due to the
increase in population.

First, you do not want to add more than about 1 inch (about 2.5cm)
of fish for every ten gallons (about 40 liters) of aquarium volume at
any one time. Adding more fish than this can be a strain on the
biological filter and can cause
the fish tank to partially cycle again as the biological filter tries
to catch up with the additional waste now in the fish tank.

Similarly, you do not want to more than double the population of
the fish tank at any one time. This is for the same reasons. Even
doubling the aquarium population puts a strain on the biological
filter and can cause the fish tank to partially cycle again.

How Often to Get New Fish

In addition to limiting the number of fish you get at any one time,
you also want to limit the frequency at which you get fish.

You generally want to wait at least two weeks between introducing
new additions to your fish tank. This gives time for the biological
filter to get caught up again. This time also allows the new fish to
get used to the fish tank, and the older, more established fish to get
used to the new additions to your fish tank.

In addition, this wait also gives time for any disease introduced by the new fish to rear
its ugly head so you can deal with that issue without also having the
stresses of additional fish being added to the fish tank.

You never want to introduce new fish to your fish tank while a
disease is evident or within four weeks after you have completed
treatment of a disease.

Waiting two weeks or more between introductions of new fish to your
fish tank also gives the last group of new additions plenty of time to
recover from the stress of being moved. This will reduce their risk of
catching any illness that may be inadvertently brought along by the
next bunch of new additions.

When to Stop Getting New Fish

Of course, as important as knowing when to get new fish, it is also
important to know when to stop getting new fish.

You want to monitor your aquarium
population and make sure you have room for additional fish before
purchasing any additional fish. You also want to research the size and
compatibility of the fish
you are considering before getting them.